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Solar and wind energy: Pakistan can benefit from UAE initiative

United Arab Emirates’ investment of $15 billion on its Masdar initiative for finding renewable sources of power have succeeded in generating 850MW of solar and wind energy in projects within and outside the country – acquiring a leadership role in providing clean energy to the world.

UAE energy experts in collaboration with international partners have been able to generate 100MW of energy in the west of Abu Dhabi, 630MW from off-shore wind energy in the United Kingdom and 120MW in Spain and now was looking for investment opportunities in the world including Pakistan, a top UAE expert Badr Lamki, director of clean energy told APP here.

“We will be proud to work in Pakistan as long as there is a commercially viable opportunity,” said Lamki when asked if the brotherly country, facing serious energy crisis can benefit from the Masdar expertise and research in producing solar and wind energy.

Another expert Dr Nawal Al Hosani, Director of sustainability Masdar and along with Badr Lamki briefed the journalists in detail about various aspects of the Masdar initiative.

Masdar is an Abu Dhabi Renewable Energy Company which is working with 50 international partners on renewable sources of the energy on its pilot project at Masdar situated in outskirts of the capital of the country.

The energy experts said the reasons behind taking this initiative were to ensure their country continue to play a leading role in providing the world with alternative and clean sources of renewable energy.

Masdar pilot project is a strategic initiative of the government, with the objective to invest, incubate and establish the new energy industry for reducing dependence on oil for meeting its energy requirements, said an official of the project while briefing a group of visiting journalists who visited Masdar project here.

The pilot project was set up in 2006 and at least fifty companies from across the world were involved to install 50 photo-voltaic panels for utilising the solar energy which after a long endeavours, have been able to produce 100 MW power in western Abu Dubai, that was being used by the capital city and also catered to local requirements of the workers of the project.

Besides, twelve electric cars are currently being run by employees by using the power produced by it. These cars can go up to 200 km before being repowered from a local station.

In a bid to provide the qualified manpower and engineers for sustaining and enhancing further its efforts, to slash dependence on oil and show the world an alternative to it, UAE has turned the Masdar City Institute into a full-fledge university where 350 students from over 40 different countries of the world were studying different disciplines of engineering like energy systems, micro-systems and advanced materials, biomass-derived fuels and energy efficiency technology.

This will provide the country trained manpower to achieve vision of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the founding father of the country, for ensuring a sustained growth and progress in face of depleting energy resources of the world.

Explaining the rationale why the Masdar pilot project and Institute were established by one of the leading oil-producing countries of the world, the head of programme management Steve Severance, told journalists, the UAE leadership realised that oil was not the long term solution to the energy so endeavours should be made to look for renewable and other sources of energy.

Secondly a need was felt that the buildings should be constructed and designed in a way they used significantly far less energy than the traditional buildings of the country.

For instance, he said, the Masdar city produces its own energy by using solar panels and its buildings consumed 60 per cent less energy than the traditional buildings of Abu Dhabi.

He said Masdar project was already working on international wind solar projects in the United Kingdom, Spain and Mauritania which indicated a great potential was there to tap the solar resources of the world including countries like Pakistan.